Opinion
From the Vineyard Gazette editions of June, 1908: To those who have always loved the Vineyard, a pretty book by Charles Gilbert Hine of New York makes its appeal. First, because of its pictorial beauty; second, because of the interest of the story; third, because of the nuggets of real history so aptly and easily distributed through the pages comprised between the covers of the Story of Martha’s Vineyard now on sale.
It’s Memorial Day weekend and sometimes I think we forget what that’s about. First, it’s about our war dead. No matter how you feel about war, we all hurt for the sons and daughters who don’t come back or come home damaged, and how that reverberates through the psyche of our society. It is also about people missing from our lives leaving that permanent, empty and personal sense of loss. All through life, things and people fall away, reminding us that we are all going to have a turn. It’s the ultimate equal opportunity.
In the cemeteries in Oak
Bluffs, Oak Grove and Sacred Heart, stars and stripes mark the graves of veterans, men and women who fought and served in wars ranging from the Civil War to the World Wars and up to Afghanistan.
Last Saturday morning, Patryck Nascimento, a Brazilian student at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, volunteered to plant American flags and replace old ones at the two cemeteries.
Seen in West Tisbury this week: a steady flow of pickup trucks in and out of the parking lot by Alley’s General Store driven by landscapers, carpenters, plumbers and electricians. Fueled by coffee and breakfast sandwiches, iPhones pressed against their ears, Island tradesmen were on the move. There were windows to hang, screens to repair, painting touchups to do once the May sunshine burned through the fog, seaside gardens waiting for a top coat of compost.
We wish to express our heartfelt thanks and gratitude for everyone in this very special community who called, wrote a personal note or expressed their concern in the Gazette over the fatal attack on our mini-horse, Majik. Majik is greatly missed by all whose lives she touched. She never missed a chance for a hug and a scratch, her tiny neck and head bowing to fully benefit from a human’s or Chance’s (her constant companion’s) affection.
Last fall you published a letter from me thanking our Island community for their support of the American Heroes Fishing Challenge. Now in its fifth year and organized by the Nixon family and Beach Plum Inn, the heroes challenge is a tournament within the Annual Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby.